Amazon offer Prime subscribers a free new book each month. I was intrigued by two of the titles this month, and opted to read Midair, about four recent HS grads that take a trip to Paris immediately after graduation. Pros: it took about 2-3 hours to read. Cons: everything else.

With a renewed interest in reading I knocked out Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere over the past few days. It was much less of a slog than American Gods, and a generally enjoyable read. Pretty basic "everyman stumbles into a supernatural battle of good v. evil" story. I am surprised it hasn't been made into a movie (I know the BBC has done several adaptations for other media).

Last night I started Vonnegut's Mother Night, a meta-memoir about a Nazi propagandist-allegedly-turned-American spy.

"God has a plan for me and this team. It's obvious I don't need to win [the Heisman] until next year.' Colt f'n McCoy

After 3 books in one week I think I may have a chance at my goal of 12 (brings me to 5 for the year).

It took me three tries to read Brave New World. I bailed 40 pages in on two occasions. I'm glad I eventually powered through because I thought it settled into a great work, but I remember thinking that I still preferred 1984.

For some reason I thought you had suggested Neverwhere to me (several people did, but I thought you were one of them).

Mother Night probably lacks the gravitas of Slaughterhouse Five, and it's a little different from the other Vonnegut I've read, but damn, that was a thought-provoking book.

"God has a plan for me and this team. It's obvious I don't need to win [the Heisman] until next year.' Colt f'n McCoy

I am definitely not going to meet my 25 books this year goal because I keep reading stuff that is long as hell. I've been going back and forth between Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815, which is the second volume of The Oxford History of the United States and Underworld by Don Delillo and finished both this week. Empire of Liberty was great. I've given DeLillo a few shots and just don't get him. Underworld was a real chore to get through and I'm pretty much done with his stuff. What are y'all reading?

2017 - I saw more new-to-me movies than I have in any year ever, but once again did not even come close to reading 25 books.

So far this year I have sucked down a fairly lengthy book on the founder of what would eventually become 20th Century Fox and am currently rereading John Lewis Gaddis' book on the Cold War in order to give some context to the PBS Vietnam thing that I'm finally getting around to watching. I'm sure this rediscovered love for the written word will fizzle out by mid-February and I'll be making the same post in 2019. What are you people reading these days?

I set a goal of 5000 pages instead of a number of books because I keep starting books I don't want to finish.

Right now I am trying to finish a connection of Neil Gaiman short stories and also planning to finally read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which I borrowed from Porter when Robbi and I still live together, and which I only read 31 pages of based on the note card apparently holding my place.

"God has a plan for me and this team. It's obvious I don't need to win [the Heisman] until next year.' Colt f'n McCoy